The Thatcherite Wonk Fest

Adam Curtis has been on radio silence for a while. He’s been galavanting around with Massive Attack producing a live show. We likes.

Last Friday, he responded to the Thatcherite love-in that happened across the pond by sticking one of his older films up.

I’m putting it up as a bit of a corrective to the terrifying wonk-fest that took over after Mrs Thatcher died. A conveyor belt of Think Tank pundits and allied operatives poured into the TV studios and together they built a fortress around Mrs Thatcher’s memory that was rooted in theories about economics.

They did this because economics is the only language that wonks understand. It’s a view of the world where they see the voters – the people who put Mrs Thatcher in power – as simplified consumption-driven robots.